Since winning the Girlboss Grant in 2018, Black Girl Magik has continued to create necessary healing spaces for black women and girls and challenge societal narratives through their IRL and URL experiences. Now, they’re officially taking their meetups on the road for their 2019 Homecoming tour, which will be popping up in NYC, DC, Atlanta, New Orleans, and LA through September 28.
If you’re new to Black Girl Magik and the work they’re doing, they describe their purpose as: “Uniting and empowering women of African descent by cultivating space and uplifting our experiences through community programming, online content, and creative productions.” Their intention? To help black women and girls to heal, address generational trauma, and stimulate self-growth.
Read our interview with founder Shydeia Caldwell and PR director Brittany Spell to find out what they want attendees to take away from their meetups and how you can support the tour if you can’t make it.
Girlboss: Tell us a bit about Black Girl Magik and how it came to be.
Black Girl Magik: We are a collective conjuring a transnational sisterhood for women across the African diaspora. Founded by Shydeia Caldwell in May 2015, Black Girl Magik began as a meetup for black women residing in New York City. The collective includes talented women like Brittany Josephina, Sierra King, Zainab Aliyu, as well as our interns Olivia Ross and Kasmir Alyse.
Girlboss: What inspired you to go on a cross-country tour?
BGM: The Black Girl Magik Homecoming Tour was inspired by the demand from our audience to create Black Girl Magik meetups outside of New York City (as well as our ancestral duty!). Our work is rooted in uplifting women of the African diaspora, so it was essential for us to expand the geographic scope of our work and create empowering communal spaces throughout the U.S.
Girlboss: What can attendees expect from your events?
BGM: Every Black Girl Magik meetup begins with an interactive communal discussion, followed by an introduction to flower essences and herbs for healing, a guided sound bath meditation for reconnection, and ends with a workshop on how to build an ancestral altar.
The Homecoming Tour is an invitation to discover and imagine what returning to self, returning to sisterhood, and returning to our ancestral roots looks, feels, and can be like. We explore topics of legacy, personal narrative, and intergenerational healing, while ensuring attendees walk away with tools and resources to continue cultivating after the Black Girl Magik meetup.
Girlboss: What do you hope is the takeaway from all BGM events?
BGM: We want each woman to come in and tap into the network of sisterhood, unwind into self, and ultimately walk away feeling a deep reconnection to their value. Daily living can feel fast and heavy at moments.We offer room for emotional processing, truth sharing, joyful celebration, and community. We want each person to walk away believing that community and self-care are not selfish, but actually vital for sustainable well-being. They are answers to navigating burnout, mental health experiences, and so much more.The Homecoming Tour is a reminder that tending to ourselves and immediate relationships is how we transform the world and lineage.
Girlboss: What have been some of the biggest learning moments you’ve taken away from your own BGM events?
BGM: There’s always room to improve, evolve, and be a better workshop facilitator and creator of safe spaces for black women and girls. And this is a part of the work my ancestors wanted me to continue.
Girlboss: How do you hope to see BGM grow in the future?
BGM: With BGM my hope is to create Black Girl Magik meetups on a global level and create the spaces black women and girls have been craving for so long.
Girlboss: For those who can’t attend, how can they still support Black Girl Magik and your tour?
BGM: For this tour, we invite allies and people who can’t attend tosponsor a ticketfor $35, so that a black woman or girl is gifted the opportunity to attend the meetup. We believe financial resources shouldn’t be a barrier for personal healing.In addition, if people would like to sponsor goodies, beverages, or unite us with folks in their network, we invite them to visit or get in touch at blackgirlmagik.com.
Find out more about Black Girl Magik and buy your tickets for their 2019 Homecoming Tour here.
